Touring holiday to Nevada, California & Arizona

jackieblack wrote: »

We fly out to Las Vegas on 4th April (147 sleeps!) for 4 nights, pick up car and drive out to Grand Canyon for 2 nights, then from Flagstaff via Route 66 (with 1 night at Lake Havasu) to LA for 2 nights, then down to San Diego for 5 nights, fly back from LA.

how about you?

Well we are off on the 29th April to San Fran - yosemite - lake isabella - las vegas - palm springs - san diego - LA and then fly back out from san fran to Manc!

16 nights! CANNOT WAIT!!!!

Gonna be so much fun!!!!

Rich

funkyfin2000 wrote: »

Well we are off on the 29th April to San Fran - yosemite - lake isabella - las vegas - palm springs - san diego - LA and then fly back out from san fran to Manc!

16 nights! CANNOT WAIT!!!!

Gonna be so much fun!!!!

Rich

Remember this from last November?

Not long to go now for either of us!

SimbaK2K wrote: »

You'll love it. We just got back from 7 nights San Diego and 3 in LA. San Diego was lovely, LA was good but much preferred San Diego, had a really cool vibe to it. Did disney on the drive up too and that was good.

Ooh.....
what did you do while you were in San Diego? (we've got four days there!) and in LA? (we've got one day but its Easter Sunday (which is a public holiday) and I can't decide how to make best use of the day!

jackieblack wrote: »

Ooh.....
what did you do while you were in San Diego? (we've got four days there!) and in LA? (we've got one day but its Easter Sunday (which is a public holiday) and I can't decide how to make best use of the day!

Tomlewis007 wrote: »

We're in san Diego for 3 nights in march, would like to know things to do/see too......... we're going whale watching one day

We like to pack things in and see as much as possible, so we did quite a bit, although LA wasn't as busy.

For LA we stayed in West Hollywood very close to Universal Studios. We had 2 full days there and spent the first day going a grand tour of LA and stars homes which we booked together through starline tours, however the stars homes can be missed unless you really like celebrities! We weren't fussed but wanted to say we've done it. The highlight of the tour was the old farmers market, lots of good things to eat and buy.

In the evening we did indoor skydiving at Universal's Citywalk. Didn't last very long but was good fun.

The second day in LA we went to Universal Studios, it was on a Sunday and very quiet in the park but I guess it is low season at the moment. Very small queues on most the rides and Universal Studios is really good, especially if you've never been to the one in Florida.

The third day we drove down to San Diego via the coast, stopping off at Huntingdon Beach, Newport Beach, and Carlsbad Premium Outlets. The coastal route is really nice however we didn't have the best weather for the drive down so we had a few more stops but decided to take a more direct route after Carlsbad.

In San Diego we did lots and I can't really remember the order so I'll just list them. We stayed in the Gaslamp Quarter so were pretty central and got taxi's to most places as we only had a car for part of our stay.

-San Diego Zoo, one of the biggest zoos in the world, had to visit for the Panda's as there aren't many zoos in the world that have them.

-5.5 hour nature tour, this was good however was quite bumpy when we got out into the ocean. Skip breakfast for this one! However got to see whales, dolphins, seals and sea lions along with a bunch of other wildlife.

-San Diego Wild Life Park, this is actually about 35 miles north of San Diego. We did a photo caravan tour which was extra but was well worth it, got really close to the animals and got to feed giraffes and animals. It’s in the middle of nowhere and is owned by the same people as the zoo but is used more of a breeding ground so the animals have lots of land and really nice enclosures. A lot of the animals are mixed together and you would think you were in Africa if you didn't know better.

-Seaworld, a few good rides and some great shows by the Dolphins and Whales, etc, no where beats it! They had an evening performance on one day so we actually went twice (had a 7 day ticket for the zoo, seaworld and animal park.) Again recommended if you haven't been to the one in Florida, if not you may be able to miss it.

-Balboa Park, a massive park with a collection of gardens and museums. You can get a pass for about 10 of the museums for about $60 and can visit each one once in a 7 day period. We visited the science museum (including renovated Imax), air and space museum, automotive museum, railroad museum, history museum, and Japanese friendship gardens,

-Old Town, a collection of Mexican shops and museums including one of the most haunted houses in American built on an Indian burial ground.

-USS Midway, this retired navy ship has been turned into a museum where you can go aboard, see the various quarters and rooms, see the captains areas and planes from years ago to recent additions. The ship held 1300 employees and is huge, it was used for about 50 years before being retired a few years ago.

-Belmont Park, a typical seaside part of town which has one of the oldest wooden rollercoaster’s, it was down for maintenance when we went but they said it'd be up in a week’s time so should be open by now. Had a few shops and small rides and I believe the beach was very close but could see it and it started to rain!.

-Sarahs Smash Shack, Got anger issues? Heres the place to go. Walk in, take your MP3 player, buy some plates, and then smash them up. It sounds crazy and it probably is but it’s really fun if you have a bit of a manic side of you.

-Disney, we made a quick stop here on our last day as we had a late flight. Very good but didn't get time to do the California Adventure Park, only the main Disneyland. Pretty much the same as the other Disney’s, excellent shows, a few really good rides, several kiddies rides, but it’s all Disney!

Shopping
-Seaport Village, down near the Harber and USS Midway there’s a set of unique shops where you can find some really random niknaks. Worth a visit if you’re close by.

-Horton Plaza, plenty of shops, located in the Gaslamp Quarter. One of the cheaper malls but not necessary cheap

-Fashion Valley, mostly designer shops so didn't spend too much time here. 2 levels of shops but mostly clothes shops .

-Carlsbad Premium Outlets, this one’s pretty far out so you'll need a car. But quite a few bargains to be had and a good selection of shops, although again quite a few clothes shop.

I tried to find a few electrical shops but there doesn't seem to be many, and they seem to be in the most random locations!



I've probably missed something off, but feel free to ask anything.

Only 32 more sleeps now!

Only thing spoiling our excitement at the moment is the terrible exchange rate - luckily got some cash & travellers cheques in the summer, but was planning to put the rest on (Nationwide!) CC to save carrying too much in cash/TQ - if only we'd known then what we know now!